Internet Explorer

This subweb begins a study of Internet Explorer. It will likely be some time before this study is more than a collection of lists and notes, often very rough lists and notes. That is how things start: to know what’s worth studying, you must first know what is there at all.

Some things are already clear. There is more to Internet Explorer than Microsoft documents, and much more than Microsoft documents accurately, and very much more than Microsoft documents well. Moreover, Microsoft uses Internet Explorer to support other software for which Microsoft has competitors, yet Microsoft’s software knows more about Internet Explorer than Microsoft documents for non-Microsoft programmers. So, there could be a lot to do here. I expect this study to run a while. All being well, it will coalesce into well-organised, reliable work—eventually.

Until then, and even then, you must understand that it is a work in progress. The work will from time to time be rearranged at my whim and I will not support old URLs. Exercise more than your usual caution about what you read. Beware that some of what is here is just one man’s growing opinions about what might be interesting or contentious.

Your choice is between seeing these notes, however disorganised, scrappy and even inaccurate, or leaving them to build up in a virtual draw in a virtual desk, waiting for some ideal time when I get to work on them properly, which of course I shall never get to do. If you want to wait for the ideal, then don’t read the rough notes. Unlike Microsoft, I do not charge you for my rough notes, let alone pass them off as reliable product documentation. Nor am I making money from a product while skimping on the documentation.

This study is entirely self-funded. I do it for no better reason than a strong feeling that something of its like needs to be done for the general benefit of a society that is much too trusting and may someday want to know what was actually in the code, as opposed to what Microsoft said in its documentation or represented to a court. If you approve of this endeavour, then please write to me about funding it, or even just to encourage me with your support.